While all three North Saskatchewan MPs are watching the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race rather closely, they all know it is now a waiting game before the new leader is announced.
While all three have endorsed different candidates in the four-person leadership race, they all agree that once the votes are counted, it is time for the party to unite and get to work. The results will be revealed Aug. 23.
“My expectation and my hope is that whoever wins on Sunday has the ability to pull everybody together and unite our party and let us move forward in the goal we all have of potentially defeating Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and becoming the next government,” said Gary Vidal, MP for Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River.
Vidal is endorsing Erin O’Toole for the leadership of the party saying he is the best person to unite the party.
“There's a lot of very good people with sincere ideas about very complex issues that have different opinions and we have to be able to respect one another in ways that we can have differences of opinions and still fight towards solutions that are best for Canada.”
Rosemarie Falk, MP for Battlefords—Lloydminster, said Leslyn Lewis has been underestimated in this leadership race and she will surprise a lot of people.
The Conservative Party is more diverse than people think, and Lewis encompasses all that as a politician.
“It would be so great to have someone who is a woman for one, who is a hard worker, who cares so much about her country that she would make the sacrifice she has to put her name on the ballot,” Falk said.
Moving forward, the party must work to engage more young people and immigrants into the party. While it is believed that a large portion of the millennial population is more Liberal leaning, Falk believes that many have Conservative values without realizing it. Party members must start having those conversations with potential Conservative supporters, she said.
Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback said he is endorsing Peter McKay for the leader of the party also for reasons of uniting the party. The party cannot move forward without a majority government and McKay is the best person for that, he said.
However, both Lewis and O’Toole would be good choices as well, he said. Hoback had supported O’Toole in the 2017 leadership race.
“There's some good people in the race, and those three, any of them I would be happy to serve and work with moving forward.”
Following Sunday’s announcement of the new party leader, Hoback said the next steps of rebuilding the party and getting new members into the party are going to be crucial for defeating the Liberal’s in the next election.
The leadership race will replace former Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer who stepped down in February 2020. The winner will be announced on Sunday evening.
